Dutch Girl Going Solo

A 13 year old Dutch girl wants to sail around the world! Excellent! just the fact that she wants to do it alone! Damn!

"A 13-year-old Dutch girl's plans to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world were temporarily blocked on Friday when a court placed her under state supervision for two months." Link

Good job court! My vote is for you!

When this issue was raised couple of days ago, it was reported that the parents of the girl supported her and thought it was a great idea. The concerned authorities feared that it was not a good idea letting a child sail solo as it was too dangerous. The matter went to court and the court decided to place her under supervision for two months under a psychologist and child protection agencies to evaluate how she will cope with this adventure. She was supposed to become the 'youngest solo sailor around the world'. The trip would take her 2 years.

I really do not think so. Its a totally bad idea. And here is why.

First. They are attempting to set a world record. 'Child protection' no where figures in this scenario, its all about setting a world record, of amending the Guinness Book of World Records. And that is the whole problem. Yes they will say she is properly trained, yes she says she is all set to go, yes they have provided everything that a sailor might possibly need... but she is a kid and you are her parents! God damn it!

Secondly. She is going solo. No one will be able to help her. She is not physically an adult so the physical strength required for such undertaking is not with her. Even Lance Armstrong needed support staff when he won the Tour de France. And that was on terra ferma! Then she is only 13 years old. You need to be absolutely 100% sure and mentally focussed to achieve such gigantic task. Its not that she'll sail for 24 hours and then come back. Its whole 2 years. I am a mature adult but cant stay away from my family!

She should not be allowed to leave solo. It is not about gender discrimination nor it is about parents inhibiting the 'creativity' factor of their children. Its purely about child protection. So court.. please don't let her leave!

Jinnah and Jaswant - Subsequent Issues

Jaswant Singh, I assume, had the idea that there will be backlash. He was thrown out of BJP, that he may not have seen coming but extreme opposition to him must have been crystal clear to him. After all, he had L K Advani's case before him who was ostracized for praising Jinnah. Mind you, pakistanis are going berserk that he praised Jinnah. Jaswant holds Jinnah 'responsible' for partition but spreads the blame on Nehru and Patel as well. (Read this article of Aaker Patel)

Amongst the unleashed discussions, is the one favourite with pakistanis - whether Jinnah wanted an Islamic state or a secular one. The liberals quote his speech to the First Constituent Assembly on 11th August 1947 wherein he said

"You may belong to any religion or caste or creed – that has nothing to do with the business of the State…."

The conservatives on the other hand say he wanted an Islamic state. For instance this quote of Jinnah made in Sibbi Darbar in 1948

"Let us lay the foundations of our democracy on the basis of truly Islamic ideals and principles. Our Almighty has taught us that our decisions in the affairs of the state shall be guided by discussion and consultations."

So what did he want? (Read this article by Pervez Hoodbhoy)

As for me.. frankly, I don't get it whats the fuss all about. Jinnah might or might not have campaigned for a homeland separate for muslims. What he definitely said 'afterwards' was that state will have no business with the religion of a person. Or you think its the otherway round?

Whats the big deal?

I was born after formation of Bangladesh. I did not even see united Pakistan. The answers of whether Jinnah wanted a pure Islamic state or a secular state make no difference whatsoever on my being a pakistani. I am a pakistani irrespective of whatever opinion you hold. Even after it being split in to two.

Talking of relations of state with minorities, 'persecution' of a minority by a state on any basis especially on basis of religion is abhorrent. This holds true if the state is secular or it is theocratic.So we should be ashamed of Gojra incident where christians were killed irrespective of what opinion you hold about Jinnah's ideals. This should not happen!

There are issues that have to be dealt with in earnest. On international scale - terrorism and our relationship with our neighbors. Whether Pakistan is Islamic or secular will have no bearings whatsoever on international relations which have to be maintained as 'GOOD'. India cannot destroy us nor we can bleed India to death - we have to live together if this mass of earth is to be improved than the rest.

Locally, we have much broader range of issues to deal with. Democracy, human rights, minority abuse, corruption, ineffective government, terrorism, religious extremism, constantly spiraling downward social indicators. Poverty is killing Pakistanis. Wake up brothers and sisters! Believe in whatever you think regarding what Jinnah thought.. just don't get bogged down in it. It serves no purpose whatsoever.

My Other Post

- Prophet Muhammad vs Ghazil Ilam Din

PostMan's Law of Blogging Choke

You will face a situation where is no item to write about and you'll complain about it in the next post.

Move Over 'Dark energry', 'Big Wave' is here!

Interesting times :) Scientists have proposed a 'new' theory to explain the expansion of universe. Its called 'Big Wave'.

Time for a bit of story telling. When some 15 billion years ago as the Big Bang occurred, the universe as we see came in to existence. All these stars and galaxies were formed. Our own solar system came in to existence some 5 billion years ago. When Newton discovered gravity, this had an ominous sign for our universe - it would ultimately collapse on itself due to gravity. To erase our fears of this inevitable crunch came Albert Einstein who proposed that Universe was 'expanding' rather than contracting. He arrived at this conclusion mathematically wherein to balance the force of gravity he introduced the 'cosmological constant' as the fudge factor. He himself admitted that it was the 'Biggest Blunder' he committed because it just did not make sense. This cosmological constant worked against the pull of gravity and thus enabled the universe to expand.

Turns out, the universe IS expanding as it was confirmed by Edwin Hubble in 1929 when he stumbled upon the red shift pattern of galaxies. As a light emitting body moves away from you, the strength of light decreases resulting in shifting towards the red end of the spectrum. But this was truly unsettling. What was causing the universe to expand? and why should it be expanding when it should be contracting instead? And what if it did not contract and kept on expanding? Will it result in the Big Rip in which everything will be torn apart?

But it was a general belief that ultimately the gravity will take over this cosmological constant so universe will become stationary if not start to contract. Fast forward to mid 1990s and scientists are boggled by the recent discovery that universe is not just expanding - its expanding very fast and its speed is rising!

The observations stated that the universe we see around us, had the visible matter of only 4%! Where the hell was the rest of 96% of our universes mass?! The Biggest Blunder of Cosmological Constant not only looked neat now but it had to be made to wear new clothes. In came the concepts of Dark Energy and Dark Matter. Dark Energy constituted 74% of the matter and Dark Matter 22%. Dark Matter has been confirmed for its presence as it has affected objects near it but it can not be detected because the light does not interfere with it.

Dark Energy which constituted 74% of our universe's mass was still elusive. In fact it too is a fudge factor introduced to balance the mathematical equations. Now scientists have come up with a new explanation for the expansion of this universe. Call it a new opinion and its called 'Big Wave'. According to it the universe is not expanding rather a wave in space-time is making it 'appear' as if its expanding very fast. This Big wave was created by the Big Bang. Blake Temple of the University of California states it in the following manner.

Temple compared the wave to what happens when you throw a rock into a pond. In this case, the rock would be the Big Bang, and the concentric ripples that result are like a series of waves throughout the universe. Later on, when the first galaxies start to form, they are forming inside space-time that has already been displaced from where it would have been without the wave. So when we observe these galaxies with telescopes, they don't appear to be where we would expect if there had never been a big wave.

uh huh :)

Man is still searching for the 'truth'. Happy hunting.
And yeah you can read that again from the top :)

The Most Dumb Chain Mail

Call me whatever but this is the most dumb email chain I have ever read. Perhaps its my bias that is rating this email as numero uno dumb but I think it is. It has to be. We muslims are really in dumps and have no solution to our problems. Our responses to events show that only God can save us, only if HE ever wished to. Muslim society as a whole, in any country, is at an intellectual abyss. We totally lack the knowledge to understand and comprehend whats at stake and how to go about solving it. Not that muslims lack at scientific knowledge, we are '0' in religious knowledge too - not of any o9ther religion but ours! Islam!

Read the mail text.


______________________________________________________
The Power of Allah

Why a nun can be covered from head to toe and she's respected for devoting herself to God, but then a Muslimah does that, she's considered "oppressed"?

Why a Jew can grow a beard and he's just practicing his faith, and when a Muslim does that, he's an extremist?

a western woman stays at home to look after the house & kids she's sacrificing herself & doing good for the household, but when a Muslim woman does so, she "needs to be liberated"

Why is it that when a child dedicates himself to a subject, he has potential, and when a child dedicates himself to Islam, he is hopeless?

When a Christian kills someone, religion is not mentioned, (i. e. Irelandand the IRA) but when a Muslim is charged with a crime, it's Islam that goes to trial?

But then again, why is it after all that, Islam is still the fastest growing religion in the world?

Take 60 seconds and give this a shot!

Let's just see if Satan stops this one. All you do is:

1... Say:

a- Subhaan-Allah (God is Exalted)

b- Alhamdu-Lillah (All praise is for God)

c- Allaahu-Akbar (God is great)

d- Laa Ilaaha Illa-Allaahu - Muhammad-ur- Rasoolullah (there is no god but God. Prophet Muhammad is the messenger)

e- Allaahumma Salli Alaa Sayyidina Muhammad wa Alaa Aalihi wa Sahabihi Wasallim

2. Then: Send it on to five other people or more. Within hours, five people have prayed and you caused a multitude of people to pray to Allah, and

3. Then: Sit back and watch the power of Allah work in your life for doing the thing that you know HE loves
______________________________________________________________



See the procedure to deal with the questions? just praise God and everything will be OK. Amazing is it not?

We have to ameliorate ourselves. We have to get out of this closed mentality of ours. No one is conspiring against Islam - not jews, not USA, not hindus but us! We are our own worst enemy.

Education is the key for unlocking the doors to the Problem Redress Section. 'Infidel' knowledge of science can help muslim countries unlock the raw potential they have and start utilizing it for themselves. No muslim country can match the GDP of any other 'infidel' country. They cant match even when all of them combine!

Muslim societies have to open up - to more opinion, ideas, discussion regarding social issues and Islam. Discussion about Islam is like going in a dark tunnel, no one dares to go there. We HAVE to go there. We have to face issues that confront us regarding our religion - issues of democracy and Islam, of women rights, of relationship with minorities, of laws implemented as sharia or in the name of sharia. No more 'Islam is peacful and the best religion'. Deal with the issues to show that its best. Do something!

But wait.. I think I know the solution..
*repeating steps 1-3 in mail*

Prophet Muhammad vs Ghazi Ilam Din

Who do you like the most? Prophet Muhammad or Ghazi Ilam din shaheed? (Ghazi was the person who killed the publisher of the book considered blasphemous by muslims in 1929). If your answer is Prophet Muhammad... think again.

Ok. Tell me. is Islam peaceful? If the treatment to non-muslims in Pakistan is to be believed.. then Hell No!

But first, I want to congratulate my muslim brethren on murdering the 7 infidel christians in Gojra in the past couple of days. I also felicitate them on killing 2 more yesterday in Muridke on charges of blasphemy. Excellent work indeed.

Now coming back to the my initial question. presenting my first case.

As a student, we used to study and hear this story about Prophet Muhammad. At the start of his preaching of Islam in Mecca, he went to an area called Ta'aif. We are told that he was cursed and thrown stones at. So much he had to endure that his slippers were soaked in his blood. Still he did not say a word to them and actually prayed for their blessing.

Compare this to my second case. Ghazi Ilam Din was a very ordinary muslim. In 1929, he heard a religious scholar talking about a person who had written a book against Prophet Muhammad. This enraged the young man and upon inquiries it was revealed that the publisher was based in Lahore. Ghazi killed the publisher of this book and for which he was hanged.

If you think that you would adopt the way of the Prophet then you are obviously wrong. You wont. You will go the path of Ghazi Ilam Din and beat the crap out of everyone. Just as we did in case of those infamous cartoons that were published in Denmark.

7:199 - Hold to forgiveness; command what is right; But turn away from the ignorant.

Well No Sir! Who cares what Quran says! We know the best way to deal with those scum bags! Frankly, Quran talks trash when it says..

16:125 - Invite (all) to the Way of thy Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching; and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious: for thy Lord knoweth best, who have strayed from His Path, and who receive guidance.

See. God does not understand what He is talking about. We muslims know way better how to defend Islam! We even have a specific blasphemy law in Pakistan. Under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code anyone can be sentenced to death of found guilty of it. Psst. we rather prefer burning and killing religious minorities in Pakistan on this one without court proceedings cuz hey.. we also have to do other work too! Who can take time out for judicial course to take its time?

Trust me.. Not even God can stop this madness that we Pakistanis are afflicted with. We are more on path of Ghazi Ilam Din than Prophet Muhammad.

Pakistani Civility

A pedestrian on footpath was told by the motorcyclist coming behind him as to why he was not getting aside even as the motorcyclist was honking the horns?

Dumbass pedestrian.

Prostitution

"Mom leaves two kids alone while she works at strip club"
(Orlando Sentinel)

Ok what is the first thought that came into your mind? 'Horrible' I would assume? You can be forgiven for that really.

"A 26-year-old mother of two is accused of leaving her young daughters home alone while she worked at a Brevard County strip club. Fiordaliza Collado-Ramirez of Palm Bay is facing charges of child neglect, according to police. Police went to an apartment in the 300 block of Mercury Avenue at about 10:30 p.m. Thursday after a neighbor called and said one child -- a 5-year-old girl -- was on a balcony. The other child, a 4-year-old girl, was ill and lying on a couch, police said. "

I do not know what the laws are for child neglect in US. I even do not know what were the intentions of that woman but I am dead sure majority of people wold have called her a whore. I am not an angel as well. Instead, I was thinking of something else. What if she 'had' to go to strip club so that she could earn for her children? Had she not, she would have lost perhaps even this opportunity to earn for her children?

I can relate this story to another form of employment as well, its called Prostitution. Everybody it seems hates the word and the profession - still its a thriving business. Prostitution in Pakistan is a taboo word. You can 'avail' the services but make sure yo do not talk about it because its the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Sssh. Things like this do not happen here.

Prostitution is the most abusive form of employment - especially in Pakistan. Poverty really is a curse. Most of the women that end up in this hole are from impoverished environments. Poor girls are told there is work opportunity is big cities so they can support their families. Others have children to feed and no source of income. Usually their husbands are abusive or drug addicts. Majority of them are themselves drug addicts and thus end up being abused. Their 'benefactors' take all the benefits and leave them to do the labour.

Then there is a group who 'analyzes' the prostitutes and prostitution business - like what I am doing right now. We are the true definition of vultures. At one side of the divide, there is the conservative camp who in totality want this practice to be abolished in Pakistan and not a word to be uttered. On the other hand we have the liberal who say that since prostitution can not ever be eradicated therefore it should be legalized so that 'worker abuse' is minimized and better health care provisions be administered.

My issue with the Right camp is that 'total abolition' of it is almost impossible as 'demand' side is the thing that will never cease. I also have issues with liberals who basically want institutionalization of an exploitation. Yes I agree that regulations are required in this area because employer abuse with regards to employee is rampant and a huge area of health hazards is totally unheeded.

What is missing is the 'alternatives' for women in this profession. No one discusses options to 'lure' them somehow from it, perhaps vocational training, social loans so that they can start some business, state or NGO protection where they can lead some normal life at least. Yes I know Prostitution can never be eliminated, there are people in it who earn a hell load of money and it IS lucrative business and that men will never run out of sex appetite. But at least one should do something for the 'majority' of women who do not want to be part of it and want a normal decent life.

Kudos to them. Or is it Adios from our side?